The #1 Secret To Growing Your Business With SEO

Over the past 10 years or so, I remember many times asking myself “what’s the one thing… above all other things… that we can do to impact search rankings the most?”

I mean, I really searched long and hard to find that ONE THING that did it — that shot a website up to #1 in Google and solidified their place forever at the pinnacle of search success. I’ve studied tirelessly for days, months, and years on search engine optimization. I’ve experimented ruthlessly with techniques and theories, then analyzed data and dissected analytics.

But then a few months ago it hit me. I finally discovered the one thing — that #1 secret, if you will — that will impact your rankings in Google more than anything else you can do.

Even more profound, the #1 secret to SEO success can also be summarized in one single word, which is: Structure.

Structure is the #1 opportunity for any business, large or small, global or local, to rise with prominence in the search results in Google for your most profitable and productive keyword phrases.

To grow your business with search (SEO), means your website is attracting traffic from people who are actively searching for your product and services. And this naturally implies people are finding you easily at the top of Google search results.

In order to be found at the top of Google search, especially for highly competitive keyword phrases, the overall structure of your website is the single greatest factor to influence your rankings.

So what do I mean by structure?

How does it relate to SEO?

And how does it impact your overall search results, or?

Structure gives your website the opportunity to thrive in search!

What do I mean by structure as it relates to SEO?

The overall structure of your website, and how it can help or hurt your rankings in Google, is correlated to how well organized the pages are within your website.

If the pages are not organized in a highly structured fashion, then your website will be perceived as low quality, with very little authority.

*** Note to you: the good thing is about 99% of websites out there are of the “non-structured” type.

On the other hand, if your website is highly structured and extremely well organized, then Google’ algorithm will begin to attribute substantial amounts of authority.

And how does structure impact your overall SEO?

Remember, Google’s algorithm is a real time auction environment, so the website with the most authority for any given keyword phrase will be the #1 ranking. But they only need to be more authoritative than the next closest competitor.

And like I said, with 99% of the websites out there will zero concerted effort places on structure, the odds are definitely in your favor!

What does a well structured website look like?

First, let me share a drawing I put together to help you visualize what I mean by high quality structure:

An authoritative site structure is one that is highly organized from the top level domain (homepage) all the way through to your newest page on your website.

Let me use a law firm website as an example here. Let’s say your law firm practices in 3 main areas: criminal defense, personal injury, and business litigation.

This is what an unorganized, highly un-structured law firm website might look like:

The homepage of your website is optimized for criminal defense, personal injury, & business litigation

Only one practice area page that talks again about criminal defense, personal injury, & business litigation

A blog, with no specific categories for your practice areas

And then your admin pages such as your “About” and “Contact” pages

Compared to a highly organized and meticulously structured website which might look like this:

Homepage: using a call to action that encourages your visitors and let’s them know they are in the right place for their legal needs

Easy to find and easy to read blocks that take visitors to each of your practice areas

And then for each of your practice areas, you in essence have a homepage for each:

Criminal Defense

supporting page 1

supporting page 2

supporting page 3

Attorney bio

Free consultation page

Personal Injury

supporting page 1

supporting page 2

supporting page 3

Attorney bio

Free consultation page

Business Litigation

supporting page 1

supporting page 2

supporting page 3

Attorney bio

Free consultation page

And those are just the specific practice area landing pages. Within your blog, the organization and structure continues with the following:

Blog Homepage

content category 1

content category 2

content category 3

And within each category are the blog posts that are specific to that category, and within your blog posts you can also reference the attorney bio page for that specific practice areas.

Websites that implement a highly organized structure like this, will be seen as an authoritative, informational resource for people who are searching in Google.

As more visitors find their way to your website, other key metrics that impact your rankings will start to improve such as:

time on site

pages viewed per visitor

bounce rates

sharing through social media

and others…

All of these metrics improve as the result of your highly structured website, which allowed people to easily find what they are were searching for.

This creates a cycle of authority within your domain, which translates into higher rankings in Google over time.

Now this won’t happen overnight. If it was that easy, then everyone would do.

But you will never compete in the top search results for your most competitive keyword phrases without first starting out with a highly structured website.

And that, my friends, is the #1 secret to growing your business with SEO!